You can find it on bit torrent. I doubt anyone cares enough to track the pirates. It was bad. Really bad. Really, really bad. Lucas himself has reportedly said, “If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it.” (wiki)
It’s like Star Wars crossed with The Brady Bunch in one of their lip-sync song and dance episodes.
But yeah, you need to see it. Once.
Carrie Fisher says she shows the special at parties, “mainly at the end of the night when I want people to leave.” 
I demand they CGI Bea Arthur singing in Episode VII!!!
And that’s another thing to illustrate how disconnected the creators of this thing were. I was 11 when I saw SW in '77 and 12 when the Holiday Special aired (though I never actually saw it then). At that age, should I have had any idea who those guest actors were? Granted, my family did not go to movies often, and we hadn’t had a TV in the house since 1976, but the first I ever heard of Bea Arthur was many years later when she starred in The Golden Girls. It was even later that I even heard the names of the other guest stars, and I still couldn’t tell you anything they starred in. I can only assume they were included for the benefit of the parents who might have watched this thing with their kids.
The “poster” for the show did list “The Jefferson Starship”:
Assume that his character is having an affair with Mrs. Chewbacca (Yeasty or whatever her name was) and his scenes have some nuance, especially when they distract Papa Itchy with the visor porn.
It’s nowhere near as good as episode 1.
This was before my time so I don’t know how well-known Bea Arthur would have been to the average 11 year old in 1978, but this would have been just months after Maude ended. Looking at Wikipedia I see Maude declined a lot in popularity for its last two seasons, but it had been in the top 10 for its first four years (1972-1976). I assume Arthur was a familiar face to many TV viewers at the time.
I don’t know about 11-year-olds in 1978, but if you were a guy in his teens, you knew Bea Arthru (although you were watching the show for Adrienne).
Before the Internet and a friend who got me a bootleg copy of the special, my only memory of this was how a Stormtrooper tore the head off Little Chewie’s (I know now his name is Lumpy) giant stuffed animal. That traumatized me so I didn’t even remember the Boba Fett cartoon.
They are indeed credited as “Jefferson Starship” in the opening sequence. ETA: It’s on youtube if anyone’s interested. I lasted about five minutes. And the ending is the Cjhewbacca family sitting at the Holiday table, apparently having a prayer.
Yeah, they didn’t become just “Starship” until Paul Kantner left the group in 1984. He filed suit to take the name “Jefferson” with him. He won a settlement that neither party could use the name “Jefferson” without consent of all of the original Jefferson Starship members. Craig Chaquico was the last original JS member to leave Starship in 1990. Katner reformed the band as Jefferson Starship: The Next Generation in 1992, and the band still tours and records, but has dropped the Next Generation monicker. Mickey Thomas heads Starship, featuring Mickey Thomas, as a separate band.
I’m kinda thinking he has the time now…
Bea Arthur was pretty well known from Maude, and Harvey Korman was kinda sorta known from The Carol Burnette Show, and Art Carney was known from The Honeymooners and Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood.
I once re-edited the special down to under an hour, and added subtitled dialog for the Wookiees. It got taken down by Lucas. No Bea Arthur, no Harvey Korman, no acrobats, and I replaced Starship with Hawkwind. I even worked in a “Fighting the Frizzies” reference. It still was torture to get through.
I started watching it from the link posted. I gave up quickly. Who thought that so much wookie dialogue would be a good idea? And then some bit about watching a cooking show <_< It was terrible and boring.
Is it at least worth watching the parts where Carrie Fisher is high?
It really isn’t. The only part of the whole special worth watching is the cartoon. I haven’t even been able to watch that.
I was 13 years old when it was broadcast and I couldn’t sit through it long enough to reach the Boba Fett cartoon.
The cartoon starts at 56:08 here, if you don’t want to watch any of the other crap: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xn5gsj_the-star-wars-holiday-special_shortfilms#.UZDssKI3tJt
no, she’s barely in it. if you want to see the best of carrie fisher tweaked just skip to the life day song at the very end.
and yeah, this can’t be compared to episode 1 or any of the prequels. they look like citizen kane compared to this abomination.
Here’s the Nostalgia Critic’s take on the show, for anyone who wants to know more about it, but doesn’t have the stomach to sit through it and would rather have a snarky internet celebrity make fun of it for them.